Ethel Kennedy isn't one to share, in spite of film about her

October 11, 2012|Nina Metz | Chicago Closeup

Q: In the movie there's a clip of you talking with Edward R. Murrow and another of you talking with Jack Paar. And you reached out to a lot of people with those tea parties for John F. Kennedy's 1952 Senate race.

Ethel: Well, I speak to people!

Chris (joking): Just not reporters, who aren't people, quite frankly. I mean, other than you.

Q: I was struck by the way Jack Paar addressed you as “this lovely little girl here.” I think you had seven children by that point.

Ethel: Maybe.

Q: You kind of laughed it off, and I think that's one instance where your sense of humor comes through in the movie. You also gave a great response to a reporter outside the courthouse after you were accused of horse thievery when you rescued some horses. The reporter asks you what your husband had to say, and you quipped, “I don't think he's going to let me off the property again.”

Ethel: Nina, you are really scary. Why are you reading all this terrible —

Chris and Rory: She watched the movie!

Ethel: Oh. Sorry. (Noticing a gesture from a publicist) — what is she saying, it's over?

Q: Uh, not quite yet. Let's switch gears a little. Sometimes hindsight changes how we view past events. Ethel, did you find that your perspective changed at all as you were revisiting these different periods in your life?

Chris: What did she just ask you? What was that question?

Ethel (long pause): I don't think I'd do it again.

Chris: Your life? (Everybody laughs.)

Q: The impression I get is that you're not one to reminisce.

Ethel: True.

Q: So I would imagine that you haven't told many of these stories. Recounting them for the movie, did it spark a different perspective on anything?

Ethel: No. What happened happened.

Q: Fair enough. Can we talk about the bananas?

Ethel: What bananas?

In the film, one of your children talks about the time you cooked bananas in Vaseline.

Ethel (Looking at Chris): That would be typical of your brothers.

Chris: That was totally fabricated. Did he say she cooked with Vaseline?

He did!

(Long silence).

Rory: You guys are all being really helpful. Thank you for helping to promote my movie. (Everybody laughs.)

Chris: What was the question?

Q: Rory, I wonder if there was a desire to reach out to your mother's siblings who are still with us and get their impressions?

Chris: Like with a seance?

Sheila (Chris' wife): She said those who are still with us!

You guys are a tough crowd!

Rory: We have a very big family, so once you open it up beyond just the kids, then you're opening it up to a whole range of people. When I was initially thinking about it, it was just going to be an interview with mummy. And then I felt like it would benefit from having the kids' perspective, my brothers and sisters. But I wanted it to be really narrow. And I think coming from the siblings and myself and my mother is different than what the Skakels would bring to it, or what the Shrivers would bring to it.

Chris: It would have gone basically from a documentary to a series. “Week Three: The Shrivers' Perspective!”

(Tribune photographer Terrence James asks a question of Ethel): Which of the children is most like you?

(Long silence).

Ethel: Are you a reporter, suddenly? Or a photographer?

Q: OK, I'll ask it! Which of your children is most like you?

Ethel (jokingly equating my repeat of the question to cheating by using a reference to the lined paper used during college exams): That's looking at the other guy's blue book.

The documentary “Ethel” premieres 8 p.m. Thursday on HBO. For more info go to ethelmovie.com.

Reunion

The stars of the 1987 Ritchie Valens biopic “La Bamba” come together for the 25th anniversary of the film this week. The panel discussion (moderated by WGN's Dean Richards) will include Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales and Elizabeth Pena. Presented by Columbia College Chicago, 7 p.m. Tuesday at AMC River East. (Admission is free, but registration is suggested.) Go to colum.edu/conversations.

Epic golf trip

About a year and a half ago, three middle-aged Chicago guys raised a few bucks on Kickstarter for a project described thusly: “Four buddies drive to the arctic to play golf. One of them is dead.” After the death of their longtime friend Mike Allen, they conceived this epic 5,500-mile road trip (with Mike's ashes in tow) as a fitting send-off. Maudlin schmaudlin — this goofball trio of retirees (Vic Zast, Jim Thompson and Dan Johnson) brought a film crew along as they traveled by RV from Chicago to play golf together one last time on a rough-looking three-hole course just north of the Arctic Circle. The footage from their trip has been shaped into a six-episode TV series called “Our Longest Drive” debuting this week (9:30 p.m. Tuesdays) on the Golf Channel.

Horror fest

Horror movie fans have more than one 24-hour marathon to choose from this month, including one coming up Oct. 20 at the Portage Theater as well as another this weekend at the Music Box Theater, including in-person appearances by Sybil Danning (who will present her film “Howling II: Your Sister's a Werewolf”) and Jeff Lieberman (who will screen his features “Squirm” and “Satan's Little Helper”). Other films on the lineup include “Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal.” The marathon begins at noon Saturday and runs through noon Sunday. Go to musicboxtheatre.com.